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A group of telecom companies and organizations including CTIA-The Wireless Association have joined forces as part of the USF By The Numbers Coalition, a group devoted to promoting a numbers-based system for collecting Universal Service Fund fees.

Related Summaries

A bipartisan group of 26 US senators has urged the Federal Communications Commission to take steps that could lead to allocating Universal Service Fund mobility dollars toward cropland "or some other geographic measurement" aimed at environmental sustainability and increasing production.

Writing for The Washington Times, Chinook Wireless President and CEO Jonathan Foxman supports suggestions that the FCC use its Universal Service Fund to build wireless-communication networks in rural areas. According to Foxman, a lack of wireless services will result in a further exodus of people and businesses from rural communities and hurt the quality of emergency services.

The FCC ruled unanimously to require that VoIP providers contribute fees to the Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes phone service in rural and low-income areas. The commission also voted to raise the amount wireless carriers contribute to the fund.

At a hearing Tuesday on Capitol Hill, senators from largely rural states said they back a "technology neutral" Universal Service Fund that would collect revenue from all communications platforms -- including broadband. FCC chief Kevin Martin is said to be leaning toward a "numbers-based" approach that would expand the USF to cover new types of phone services such as VoIP.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said he supports a shift toward a "technology-neutral" approach to the Universal Service Fund that collects fees using a "numbers-based approach." Congress is expected to take up the issue of USF reform beginning next year as it grapples with the growth of IP telephony.